The present invention relates in general to a word information storage and retrieval device and, more particularly, to an electronic dictionary and language interpreter for providing efficient and rapid retrieval of any desired word or words stored therein.
Recently, a new type of electronic device called an electronic dictionary and language interpreter has been available on the market. The electronic dictionary and language interpreter differs from any conventional type of electronic device in that the former is of a unique structure which provides for efficient and rapid retrieval of word information stored in a memory. An example of such electronic dictionaries and language interpreters was disclosed in Levy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,236, issued June 12, 1979, "ELECTRONIC DICTIONARY AND LANGUAGE INTERPRETER".
Recently, there have been developed memory modules that will translate English into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portugese and Japanese, and vice versa. Some of these languages, such as German, have an inflection system requiring the use of a properly inflected word which is appropriate according to its use within a sentence. In such a case, it was further desired that these portable devices have means for inflecting words on the basis of their uninflected forms.